July Hatch-a-Long (including 4th of July hatch-a-long)

[shober]

Let’s hope we all have more successful hatches!

 

[kelseyk]

Wow! What kind of snake is that? Looks huge. We get Garters (harmless) and the occasional baby rattlesnake but nothing like that.

It is a bull snake. They are good snakes (unless they are in your chicken coop). It is said that they are supposed to scare rattlesnakes away, but I am not so sure. When they get mad, they will imitate a rattlesnake - coil up and shake their tail and their hiss sounds like rattles.

 

[kelseyk]

It looks like a harmless (to humans) rat snake. Probably likes eggs too

Bull snake - we don't have rat snakes here. And yes, harmless. I would have let it live, but this was the 3rd time I have seen it in the chickens.

 

[AquaDuck]

Got around 15 of my own eggs on day 21 today. 6 have hatched and the rest are coming along nicely! Mostly Silverrudds blue x Faverolles mix.

My dog watching the hatcher closely

 

[slbenter]

I guess I'm really going to experience several unfortunate learning experiences with all the hatches.
So far, I've learned dough warmers are not good to begin hatches.
Even good incubators can fail, as with my Hovabator that cooked all my Salmon Favorells.
I had good fortune and all but one of my BCM eggs hatched, all chicks doing well there.
A surprise low hatch rate on all my Delaware eggs, only 2 out of 8 or 9 has hatched, and we're on day 23 now. Most all those eggs looked good during candling.

Now, one of the 2 Delaware chicks that hatched this morning has a twisted backward leg, and deformed toe on it's other foot. It involves the entire leg that's backwards. It cannot walk at all.
I am going to cull the poor thing, and with all the excitement and Ooohs and Ah's over these cute as a button babies, to say I'm not looking forward to this task one bit is an understatement.

My son offered to do it for me, but I said no. I will have to be prepared for what comes along with raising chickens.

 

[CindyinSD]

I guess I'm really going to experience several unfortunate learning experiences with all the hatches.
So far, I've learned dough warmers are not good to begin hatches.
Even good incubators can fail, as with my Hovabator that cooked all my Salmon Favorells.
I had good fortune and all but one of my BCM eggs hatched, all chicks doing well there.
A surprise low hatch rate on all my Delaware eggs, only 2 out of 8 or 9 has hatched, and we're on day 23 now. Most all those eggs looked good during candling.

Now, one of the 2 Delaware chicks that hatched this morning has a twisted backward leg, and deformed toe on it's other foot. It involves the entire leg that's backwards. It cannot walk at all.
I am going to cull the poor thing, and with all the excitement and Ooohs and Ah's over these cute as a button babies, to say I'm not looking forward to this task one bit is an understatement.

My son offered to do it for me, but I said no. I will have to be prepared for what comes along with raising chickens.

I had a Silkie like that. It's sad, but one of the responsibilities of hatching.

 

[kelseyk]

My Salmon Faverolle hatch is done. Very poor hatch rate on the eggs. I was sent 6 eggs, removed 1 quitter, and went into lockdown with 5 very active chicks. The first one pipped, zipped, and hatched within a matter of hours. The 2 that had internally pipped - 1 turned itself inside the internal membrane after internally pipping- cutting itself off from the air cell it was also malpositioned. The 2nd, I assisted this morning, it's chirp was getting weak last night and I had made an air hole. Chirp was still weak this morning so I peeled off shell and checked membrane. It had started to stick to the chick and was pretty well absorbed. So started peeling dried membrane off and the chick popped out soon after. It still has just a small amount of yolk sticking out at the belly button. The last 2 apparantly died in shell before internally popping. So 2 out of 5 eggs total.

 

[SnapdragonQ]

I'm so excited! I finally got my Lavender Mottled English Orpington eggs! This will be my last hatch for the year (probably)! Lol.....

Um, color me skeptical.

I guess I'm really going to experience several unfortunate learning experiences with all the hatches.
So far, I've learned dough warmers are not good to begin hatches.
Even good incubators can fail, as with my Hovabator that cooked all my Salmon Favorells.
I had good fortune and all but one of my BCM eggs hatched, all chicks doing well there.
A surprise low hatch rate on all my Delaware eggs, only 2 out of 8 or 9 has hatched, and we're on day 23 now. Most all those eggs looked good during candling.

Now, one of the 2 Delaware chicks that hatched this morning has a twisted backward leg, and deformed toe on it's other foot. It involves the entire leg that's backwards. It cannot walk at all.
I am going to cull the poor thing, and with all the excitement and Ooohs and Ah's over these cute as a button babies, to say I'm not looking forward to this task one bit is an understatement.

My son offered to do it for me, but I said no. I will have to be prepared for what comes along with raising chickens.

 

[TheBajan]

I guess I'm really going to experience several unfortunate learning experiences with all the hatches.
So far, I've learned dough warmers are not good to begin hatches.
Even good incubators can fail, as with my Hovabator that cooked all my Salmon Favorells.
I had good fortune and all but one of my BCM eggs hatched, all chicks doing well there.
A surprise low hatch rate on all my Delaware eggs, only 2 out of 8 or 9 has hatched, and we're on day 23 now. Most all those eggs looked good during candling.

Now, one of the 2 Delaware chicks that hatched this morning has a twisted backward leg, and deformed toe on it's other foot. It involves the entire leg that's backwards. It cannot walk at all.
I am going to cull the poor thing, and with all the excitement and Ooohs and Ah's over these cute as a button babies, to say I'm not looking forward to this task one bit is an understatement.

My son offered to do it for me, but I said no. I will have to be prepared for what comes along with raising chickens.

I'm so sorry you have to do this but I understand and respect that you are not passing on the responsibility. It will come to me also someday and I am not looking forward to it. Many congrats on your Marans. You seem to be with the Delaware where I am with the Marans. I did find some more hatching eggs close enough to pick up. I should be able to set them mid-week. I hope you can find some more Delaware and Favorells locally.

 

[TheBajan]

Something to cheer us up! My first (and only) FBCM today at three days old! Anyone able to feather sex this baby? Give me an educated guess?